22nd Street viaduct
The 22nd Street viaduct is a road bridge connecting 22nd Street South to 22nd Street North over the Railroad Reservation, Morris Avenue to the north and Powell Avenue to the south.
The original span was constructed in 1915, but had to be replaced in the 1920s when the railroad tracks were elevated in the downtown area to eliminate grade crossings. Funds for a new viaduct were included in the 1928 Birmingham bond referendum, though no agreement had been completed with the Birmingham Electric Company to contribute to its construction.
The northeast edge of the viaduct is built directly adjacent to a building on the south side of Morris Avenue. The portion of the building's wall projecting above the span was used as the site for "Geo-Chromatic Progress", one of Michael Mojher's paintings completed under the auspices of the Birmingham Urban Mural Project in 1978.
During that same year, the city, at the behest of Morris Avenue project coordinator Richard Mansfield-Jones Jr, made plans to construct a "piazza" beneath the viaduct for $45,000.
The span gained a degree of local press in the summer of 2000 when the city used duct tape to temporarily fix crumbling balusters while waiting for appropriations from the Alabama Department of Transportation for more permanent repairs.
Gallery
Detail of the balustrade in June 2002
References
- "City to Vote on $4,000,000 Bonds to Raise Tracks" (February 21, 1928) The Birmingham News, p. 1
- Nesbitt, Jim (July 29, 1978) "Morris Avenue–will it make it?" Birmingham Post-Herald, p. C1
- MacDonald, Ginny (July 7, 2000) "Duct tape bridges the gap." The Birmingham News